IRS "Loses" Lerner Emails; Congressman Says He'll Get Them From NSA "Metadata" Surveillance

//Behind Enemy Lines

The IRS said today it can't turn over Lois Lerner's emails, because their computer crashed. That has raised the ire of many, including you and I, House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrel Issa, and Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp.

Camp says "...The fact that I am just learning about this, over a year into the investigation, is completely unacceptable and now calls into question the credibility of the IRS’s response to Congressional inquiries.  There needs to be an immediate investigation and forensic audit by Department of Justice as well as the Inspector General..."

Rightfully so, he's really put off by this, and says:

"...Just a short time ago, Commissioner Koskinen promised to produce all Lerner documents.  It appears now that was an empty promise.  Frankly, these are the critical years of the targeting of conservative groups that could explain who knew what when, and what, if any, coordination there was between agencies.  Instead, because of this loss of documents, we are conveniently left to believe that Lois Lerner acted alone.  This failure of the IRS requires the White House, which promised to get to the bottom of this, to do an Administration-wide search and production of any emails to or from Lois Lerner.  The Administration has repeatedly referred us back to the IRS for production of materials.  It is clear that is wholly insufficient when it comes to determining the full scope of the violation of taxpayer rights...”

According to Camp, the The IRS claims it cannot produce emails written only to or from Lerner and outside agencies or groups, such as the White House, Treasury, Department of Justice, FEC, or Democrat offices.

House Oversight Subcommittee Chairman Charles Boustany Jr., is also weighing in:

"...In the course of the Committee's investigation, the Administration repeatedly claimed we were getting access to all relevant IRS documents. Only now - thirteen months into the investigation - the IRS reveals that key emails from the time of the targeting have been lost.  And they bury that fact deep in an unrelated letter on a Friday afternoon.  In that same letter, they urge Congress to end the investigations into IRS wrongdoing. This is not the transparency promised to the American people.  If there is no smidgeon of corruption what is the Administration hiding?..."

Darrel Issa says its more of the same from the IRS and the Obama administration:

"...Isn’t it convenient for the Obama Administration that the IRS now says it has suddenly realized it lost Lois Lerner’s emails requested by Congress and promised by Commissioner John Koskinen?  Do they really expect the American people to believe that, after having withheld these emails for a year, they’re just now realizing the most critical time period is missing? Congressional oversight has revealed that the IRS has –potentially illegally– shared confidential taxpayer information with the FBI and lost crucial email records even as the agency continues to withhold information by not fully complying with the Committee’s subpoena. Left to the IRS’ own preferences, the White House would still be retelling the lie that this was all about mismanagement confined to a local office.  The supposed loss of Lerner’s emails further blows a hole in the credibility of claims that the IRS is complying with Congressional requests and their repeated assurances that they’re working to get to the truth. If there wasn’t nefarious conduct that went much higher than Lois Lerner in the IRS targeting scandal, why are they playing these games?...”

But Representative Steve Stockman from Texas appears to have a solution.  He wants all the meta data files from the NSA on Lois Lerner.

Isn't that just a beaut?

According to a Stockman statement, his request comes just hours after the IRS claimed it “lost” all of Lerner’s emails to or from Lerner and outside agencies or groups during that period, in which she allegedly coordinated with the White House, House Democrats and political groups to harass and deny tax-exempt status to groups critical of the President.   Stockman says:

"...I have asked NSA Director Rogers to send me all metadata his agency has collected on Lois Lerner’s email accounts for the period which the House sought records...The metadata will establish who Lerner contacted and when, which helps investigators determine the extent of illegal activity by the IRS...The claim incriminating communications were erased by a glitch conjures memories of Rose Mary Woods... Barack Obama has brought us Jimmy Carter’s economy and Richard Nixon’s excuses.

[Rose Mary Woods was the Nixon White House Secretary that claimed "...responsibility in a 1974 grand jury testimony for inadvertently erasing up to five minutes of the 181⁄2 minute gap in a June 20, 1972, audio tape. Her demonstration of how this might have occurred – which depended upon her stretching to simultaneously press controls several feet apart (what the press dubbed the "Rose Mary Stretch"[4]) – was met with skepticism from those who believed the erasures, from whatever source, to be deliberate. The contents of the gap remain a mystery..."  (Wikepedia)  The audio tape was part of the Watergate Investigation evidence.]

What do you think the NSA will do?